Journal file photoHamilton Sanchez is seen at a hearing after he was charged in the 2005 quadruple murder of the Armanious family. Sanchez was arrested last night in Guttenberg on drug charges.

GUTTENBERG -- The man who beat the rap in the heinous murder of four members of a Jersey City family in 2005 was arrested yesterday on federal drug charges, officials said.

Hamilton Sanchez, 37, who has no permanent address, was arrested in an apartment building on the 300 block of 68th Street at 4:30 p.m. and charged with conspiracy to distribute heroin, officials said. A pit bull was shot dead during execution of the arrest warrant.

Sanchez and Edward McDonald were arrested in March 2005 and charged with the brutal murders of Hossam Armanious, 47; his wife, Amal Garas, 37; and their two daughters, Sylvia, 16, and Monica, 9, during a botched robbery on Jan. 11, 2005.

McDonald, who was convicted and is serving a 400-year prison term, implicated Sanchez in a video-taped confession, but the video wasn't admissible as evidence against Sanchez unless McDonald took the stand. McDonald refused and in February 2009 prosecutors dropped the murder charges against Sanchez.

Sanchez was also facing federal drug charges at that time and he finished serving his federal sentence in May 2010, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Arrested last night on the same drug charge was Juan Rodriguez Jr., 33, of 68th Street in Guttenberg, who was in his apartment when the warrant was executed, officials said, adding that Sanchez was arrested in another area of the building.

Rodriguez allegedly released his pit bull "Mojo" when law enforcement showed up at his home and the dog was fatally shot in the head and chest, officials said.

According to the complaint filed by the federal Drug Enforcement Agency, Rodriguez and Hamilton conspired to sell heroin to an undercover law enforcement officer. The alleged sales included a $4,000 purchase on Feb. 16, another $4,000 sale on March 8, and a $5,000 sale on April 10, the complaint says.

Each member of the Armanious family was stabbed multiple times while bound and gagged with duct tape in their Oakland Avenue home in January 2005. Their bodies were found days later in their two-family residence when concerned relatives went to police. McDonald was the Armanious family's upstairs tenant.

Sanchez and McDonald were arrested after bank security cameras captured images of a car being used by McDonald to make withdrawals at area bank drive-throughs using an Armanious debit card.

Sanchez was to make his first court appearance on the new charges at 2 p.m. in Newark. Guttenberg police and the Hudson County Prosecutor's Officer where involved in the last night's arrests.